Prom is a rite of passage for many high schoolers, but it can also be an expensive one, as buying or renting a dress (or tuxedo) usually costs hundreds of dollars.
That's why two Utah teenagers started a project to make sure that everyone who needed a prom dress could get one for free. Ashley Tettelbach and Audrey Garringer, both from Park City, were inspired to create The Prom Project SLC while shopping for their own prom dresses. They started out collecting used formal dresses with the help of their own contacts and two local cleaners.
Then, the industrious teens contacted The Marriott Residence Inn in Murray, which agreed to donate a meeting room for them to use as their "shopping" location.
"We just thought it'd be fun for, like, other people to have the same experience [of shopping for a prom dress]," Tettelbach told TownLift. "I think it would mean a lot to them, and it would make them feel pretty and stuff."
The event recently went off without a hitch, per the project's Instagram page. And the teens announced that they are going to keep it going, continuing to collect donations for next year's prom.
As Ashley and Audrey noted in another Instagram post, making sure that these dresses get a second chance at prom is also a good thing for the environment.
The fashion industry creates an enormous amount of waste. According to one recent study, the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or buried in a landfill every second.
Not only that, but the fashion industry also creates an incredible amount of waste while making the clothes themselves (and also uses massive amounts of water).
For events like prom, where many dresses are purchased, worn once, and then never looked at again, the waste can really add up. That's why it's so great that The Prom Project SLC was able to get these dresses out of peoples' closets and to people who needed them.
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